Enfold is a contemporary folk album by Joan in the Fires, featuring Jessie Doyle. It combines the lyrics of poet Ward Kelley with imaginative melodies to produce a truly unique folk listening experience.

15 songs take the listener on a voyage through a Wild Mouse amusement park ride to the poets Sylvia Plath and Emily Dickinson to the Book of Proverbs to ancient Rome and finally to the Secret of Life, a tongue-in-cheek look at the world’s religion where the singer laments she is theologically abused. Interspaced throughout the album are new but more conventional folk songs and topics.

One thing is for certain, the listener will come away with a unique folk experience!

Jessie Doyle is a Virginia singer/songwriter of folk, folk rock, and roots music, currently living in central Virginia. She released many of her own compositions, and fronts the Americana group, Folk Medicine. She recently launched a collaboration with writer/poet Ward Kelley.

Jessie is the consummate free spirit, whether in her music, choice of favored instruments (uke & banjo) or living style – she spent four years at the Virginia commune, Twin Oaks International Community, saying, “It was a great four years in which I felt like I could really be myself. My time spent there is irreplaceable.”

About Ward Kelley:
Ward Kelley has seen his stories and poems appear in hundreds of journals worldwide. He is a three-time Pushcart Prize nominee and was the recipient of the Nassau Review Poetry Award for 2001, Kelley is also the author of “histories of souls,” a poetry collection, and he has an epic poem, “comedy incarnate” on CD and CD ROM. Kelley holds a Masters of Creative Writing. He published two novels “Divine Murder” and “Keenly Alive, Tony” which are both available on Amazon at Ward Kelley’s author page.

The Wild Mouse Song: The singer imagines the boundary between life and death as an amusement park ride, then conjectures communicating with ‘little dead souls.’

A Wild Mouse roller coaster (also Mad Mouse or Crazy Mouse) is a type of roller coaster characterized by small cars that seat four people or fewer and ride on top of the track, taking tight, flat turns (without banking) at modest speeds, yet producing high lateral G-forces. The track work is characterized by many turns and bunny hops, the latter producing abrupt negative vertical G forces.

Marcus Tullius Cicero, 3 January 106 BCE – 7 December 43 BCE) was a Roman philosopher, politician, lawyer, orator, political theorist, consul and constitutionalist. He came from a wealthy municipal family of the Roman equestrian order, and is widely considered one of Rome’s greatest orators and prose stylists. Though he was an accomplished orator and successful lawyer, Cicero believed his political career was his most important achievement. It was during his consulship that the Second Catilinarian Conspiracy attempted to overthrow the government through an attack on the city by outside forces, and Cicero suppressed the revolt by executing five conspirators without due process. During the chaotic latter half of the 1st century BC marked by civil wars and the dictatorship of Gaius Julius Caesar, Cicero championed a return to the traditional republican government. Following Julius Caesar’s death Cicero became an enemy of Mark Antony in the ensuing power struggle, attacking him in a series of speeches. He was proscribed as an enemy of the state by the Second Triumvirate and consequently executed by soldiers operating on their behalf in 43 BCE after having been intercepted during attempted flight from the Italian peninsula. His severed hands and head were then, as a final revenge of Mark Antony, displayed in the Roman Forum. –Wikipedia

Ward Kelley’s notes when writing the lyrics for “Cicero Thrusts His Head”.

Quotes by Marcus Tullius Cicero

A home without books is a body without soul.

The pursuit, even of the best things, ought to be calm and tranquil.

Nothing is more noble, nothing more venerable than fidelity. Faithfulness and truth are the most sacred excellences and endowments of the human mind.

Let us not listen to those who think we ought to be angry with our enemies, and who believe this to be great and manly. Nothing is so praiseworthy, nothing so clearly shows a great and noble soul, as clemency and readiness to forgive.

In this broadcast of Wardco Studios Showcase, we are featuring Indie Music by Indie Artists Jeff Stafford and the Short Bus Criminals, Verity White and Dave Vargo. Learn more about these Indie Artists at WardcoStudios.com and get links to the artists’ websites and social media. Indie Artists are welcome to submit music to our podcast. […]

In this broadcast of Wardco Studios Showcase, we are featuring Indie Music by Indie Artists Jeff Stafford and the Short Bus Criminals, Verity White and Dave Vargo. Learn more about these Indie Artists at WardcoStudios.com and get links to the artists’ websites and social media. Indie Artists are welcome to submit music to our podcast. […]

In this broadcast of Wardco Studios Showcase, we are featuring Indie Music by Indie Artists Lonesome Train, Tracy Colletto, and Francesco Zane. Learn more about these Indie Artists at WardcoStudios.com and get links to the artists’ websites and social media. Indie Artists are welcome to submit music to our podcast. Comment on the Podcast using […]